Build a Native Bee-House

I saw a recent documentary on bees and it really caught my attention due to the impact it can have on our food. The imported European honeybees are in deep trouble with mysterious large declines CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) due to potentially multiple diseases, overwork, cell phones, and chemicals. The culprit is being actively researched around the world as bee colonies disappear literally overnight from their hives. Some bee keepers have had to import at a great cost bees from Australia that do not have symptoms of CCD.

Bees have always when sick left the hive to die elsewhere to prevent causing more infections in the hive, but this is on a large scale. Three out of five bites of our food supply rely on pollination and a great deal of that is due to the honeybees. In China some people have had to start human manual pollination for fruit trees.

• PBS NATURE: Silence of the Bees
• Stung By Bees Newsweek article on the loss of bees on farmers
• Infoshop News - Honey Bee Disappearance No Laughing Matter
• 'Let Them Eat Cake': The Bee Crisis, Part 1
• Slashdot | Vanishing Honeybees Will Affect Future Crops
• 60 Minutes: Why Are Honeybees Disappearing? Pt. 1

The one thing we can all do is limit insecticides and pesticides in our gardens and encourage the native bee populations to thrive. There are many native bees in the world and they differ quite a bit from the European honeybees as they are not really honey producers, but pollinators. You can encourage native bees in your yard or property simply by taking small diameter (1/4” or 5-9 mm) bamboo cut to about 5 inches long and place them around your garden in bundles. Native bees love these little bee houses.

One thing I noticed and videotaped this weekend in HD slow motion was the fighting of bees amongst themselves stealing each others pollen.

More native bee house designs and info:

• PureFlorida: Recycled Bee House
• Mason Bee House
• Alternative Pollinators: Native Bees
• Aussie Bee
• Solitary Native Bees

Cheers,
Shaan

Comments

[Crystal Pearson]

Hey Shaan! Glad to see you are helping to spread the word about the plight of our bees. I've never heard of Bamboo "homes", sounds like a great idea! Thanks for all the links too.

Cheers!

Crystal

[Ian McGregor]

I have many nectar plants in my UK garden that the bees seem to love and some bee keepers nearby. When I recently built a conservatory on the back of my house I began to notice how many different species I had to free from flying through my doors so I began to identify those I released. There's a great resource, if you are interested, at http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/projects/bombus/index.html

[Shaan Hurley]

Kirk,
Thanks for the bee sting tip but I sure don't want to test it as I hate bee stings. I did wander into a location South of Phoenix in June where a swarm of africanized bees (killer bees)were. I also heard (http://www.kpho.com/news/16540038/detail.html?rss=pho&psp=news) while there one guy hiking when I was, that ran into a killer bee hive and fell 85 feet and was stung repeatably over 300 times. Even the rescue crews were stung. It would have taken a mountain of pennies that day. :-)

Native bees are mostly sting-less.

Cheers,
Shaan

[W. Kirk Crawford]

If you get stung by a bee, cover the spot with a penny.
It will reduce the pain and may keep the swelling down also.